L'aura del Campo

20 days before you die. poem: Skylark of the millionaire.

L'aura del campo

WINTER?: 8 Sharaf (7 January) 37º.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

20 days before you die ...

... you'll probably won't know when that day will come. Yet it is certain that if you are alive you will die someday. The flesh can only take so much .

Large number of Americans died on December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001. My generation remembers November 22, 1963 quite vividly. But how many of us remember November 2nd? Did JFK have any inkling 20 days before Dallas? Dr. King may have in Memphis on April 4th of 1968! Yet everyone who has ever died was alive 20 days before they did.

If today were number 20 on the countdown to material oblivion, what would be remembered for? The argument with your spouse or kids? What you ate or didn't eat? A poem you've written that will appear in anthologies ... posthumously?

Twenty days before Sylvia Plath gassed herself or Anne Sexton went to the garage to die of carbon monoxide did they predict their end? Perhaps they knew on some level. Do you?

Today has been a day of depression for me ... but I'm slogging through.

I did not slept so well. No reason, except I have a cold or something. Achy all day. Hub took me out to the Jade Mongolian Restaurant. I had a variety of food off the buffet. I really liked the black-pepper-pork and the black-pepper-mushrooms, the sho mai (sp?), the sushi, the squid. I rarely eat in a restaurant and no longer feel comfortable wasting money on food, but my friend wanted to go, so I went.

Yesterday, it was a surprise lunch with Neva and Carol. Eileen gave me a tab as a gift and that was sweet of her (She's 29 again today ** Happy Birthday, Eileen ** Her son will just have to get over the fact his mom is younger than him.).

I sat down with Chris and we had a heart-to-heart talk. That was unexpected too. Been a weekend of oddities. I really enjoyed the art exhibit at the Olive the other night also. The artist of 'Stop Motion' (I forgot his name ... Andrew? maybe?? ) uses a soft malleable clay that he bakes in his apartment oven. His works have a unique sense of humor.

Today I spoke with Donna Robbins Walkingstick. I was thrilled! Until she told me how Taco Mayo mistreated her. I'd arrange a boycott if I could, but Oklahoma has very weak harassment laws and she has other priorities in her life.

The weather ... sunny and mild. Not winter.
We may get bitter cold and snow this coming weekend though.

Just a silly ditty written after randomly pointing at three words in the dictionary: millionaire, skylark and heredity. I also noted milline, skunk and herm, but left out skunk. This is what I came up with:

Skylark of the millionaire

What price one agate line
that wrings out cash on time
of ads one column width
the rate per million copies?
It adds up to buy his house,
to buy her patient petulance,
until his heredity runs out
and the dull brown bird
reveals herself with melodies
that frolic and sport and
stroke the herm. The skylark
raises the price of the milline
of her now mourned millionaire. [163.542]

Why did I start thinking of Anna Nichole Smith after writing this? At least she put a smile on the old man's face. And happiness counts for a lot. (By-the-way, 'stroking the herm' is an interesting euphemism I came across in the dictionary ; milline or mil-line is an advertising rate.)

Watt's Gnu:

I'd still love to travel some day. The coast of Italy keeps coming up in my dreams and old dreams of Sogndal (Norway), Kyoto or Nairobi mix with thoughts of Galicia, Mongolia and Costa Rica. Of course, there's alway Sweden and Bolivia too! Too many places that I'll never see .

These are some top places to go:

http://travel.news.yahoo.com/b/rolf_potts/20070101/rolf_potts/rolf_potts18474

See any you like ? Wanna take me along?

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 Kare Enga